Hypnosis and improvisation combined to bring a hilarious night of HYPROV: Improv Under Hypnosis on Saturday. Featuring renowned hypnotist Asad Mecci and improv comedian Colin Mochrie (Whose Line Is It, Anyway?), they brainstormed with the crowd to create a completely unplanned show with the volunteers on stage.
For the first segment of the show, 20 volunteers were brought to the stage to be hypnotized by Mecci. Once under hypnosis, he used direct suggestions such as maintaining eye contact with himself and heavy breathing techniques. Mecci filtered the group based on receptivity to the hypnosis.
While under hypnosis, the group was instructed that they had lost their belly buttons and had to search the stage area to find them. Through strife and struggle, Mecci questioned participants, directing their emotions from anger to cluelessness, paranoia and more. Once the final five volunteers were selected, the improvisation segment of the show could commence.
Mochrie joined Mecci and the five volunteers on stage and immediately jumped into the improvisation. With the help of the audience, Mochrie and the volunteers engaged in various entertaining skits.
If one had to guess the context of “Don’t you wanna rub it?” to “With your little aardvark face, I hope you’ve gone to a better place,” you’d probably have a difficult time piecing it together. But as part of the audience, you got to witness the improvised Bald and the Beautiful final date scenes with Mochrie as the honorable bachelor; and a comedic pastor delivering a eulogy for an aardvark-chinchilla hybrid pet, with “an affinity for playing the trumpet, and an unfortunate demise at the hands of a chainsaw.”
The silliness and imagination went as far as the interstellar planet Snigglefart during the journey to find the Tattoo Gun of Doom. In deep hypnosis, the participants created dramatic scenes between the captain (Mochrie), his trusted admiral Jenkins and the all-knowing and rather unhelpful computer Beep-Bop.
From playing a 007-inspired character, “I’m Danger, Dick Danger,” to singing an operatic duet with his lover, restaurant manager Danni, Mochrie inspired comical interactions with the hypnotized. The crowds watched in both amazement and amusement, hanging on to every improvised word for the entire two-hour show.
To learn more about HYPROV: Improv Under Hypnosis, follow them on Instagram at @hyprov.
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